February 26, 2009 (Liberec, Czech Republic) – Finland’s solid performance earned them the gold in the 4x5km Team Sprint as Pirjo Muranen, Virpi Kuitunen, Riitta-Liisa Roponen, Aino Kaisa Saarinen had a comfortable lead over Germany in second in a nail biter with Sweden who were 3rd.

Heading into the third leg of the women’s relay Virpi Kuitunen of Finland handed off to Riita-Lissa Roponen with a 30-second lead over the Norwegians who had Kristin Stoermer Steria the silver medalist from the 15km pursuit. Steira in her 5km skate effort not only caught Roponen but put Norway ahead by over 10 seconds. However that lead was not enough as the 3-time medalist – already at the championships – Aino Kaisa Saarinen for Finland made up the time in the first 2.5km and pulled away from Norway’s junior Marthe Kristoffersen to win the women’s relay.

Charlotte Kalla moved through the field on her final leg for Sweden putting down the fast time and caught Germany’s Claudia Nystad heading over the top of the final big climb. At this point Germany and Sweden both were just seconds down on Norway.

Heading up the final climb to the stadium Kalla pulled up beside Nystad and the sprint was on as they had now caught Norway and all three women went head-to-head down the finish stretch. Nystad of Germany showed why she is the 2006 Olympic sprint silver medalist as she out-sprinted both women for Germany’s second team silver medal in two days. Kalla captured the bronze just 0.4 seconds back.

The USA finished a disappointing 14th out of 15 teams entered. Liz Stephen had the eighth fastest time in the first leg of skate but the team dropped from ninth to 10th.

“Each individual skied their hardest, so that’s all we can ask,” U.S. Cross Country Head Coach Pete Vordenberg said. “We had a really strong start with Kikkan. She probably had her best classic race of all time. Then it tagged over to Morgan and I think it’s safe to say it was her best 5K classic race as well,” Vordenberg said. “Liz had a really fast start. She probably didn’t pace it quite right, but skied super strong. Caitlin was our anchor. She didn’t have the best day, but she skied her butt off and that’s what we ask of them.”

Full results here.

Results (brief)

1. Finland (Pirjo Muranen 14:11.2, Virpi Kuitunen 13:57.2, Riitta-Liisa Roponen 13:41.2, Aino Kaisa Saarinen 12:34.7) 54:24.3
2. Germany (Katrin Zeller 14:34.7, Evi Sachenbacher Stehle 14:44.9, Miriam Goessner 12:37.9, Claudia Nystad 12:39.8) 54:37.3
3. Sweden (Lina Andersson 14:33.0, Britta Norgren 14:38.6, Anna Haag 13:09.3 Charlotte Kalla 12:16.8) 54:37.7

14. United States of America (Kikkan Randall 14:34.1, Morgan Arritola 15:11.3, Elizabeth Stephen 13:25.2, Caitlin Compton 14:30.1) 57:40.7